Do any top distance/xc coaches care about their runners beyond performance?

Without naming names...yes.

I honestly think most have a good perspective and care. What is hard is roster size. With all the other things going on in coaching I feel a coach only has time for 20ish or fewer athletes. That is really just varsity at most schools. If you want a closer relationship with your college coach make varsity.

This is a big part of the reason I tell kids to not walk on at a scholarship level. Go somewhere where the coach is invested in you financiall, and they likely will be emotionally as well.

Not too many DI programs have rosters bigger than 20 though, per gender.

Use to JUCO wrote:

Without naming names...yes.

I honestly think most have a good perspective and care. What is hard is roster size. With all the other things going on in coaching I feel a coach only has time for 20ish or fewer athletes. That is really just varsity at most schools. If you want a closer relationship with your college coach make varsity.

This is a big part of the reason I tell kids to not walk on at a scholarship level. Go somewhere where the coach is invested in you financiall, and they likely will be emotionally as well.

Name names

A Cat Named Curiosity wrote:

Not too many DI programs have rosters bigger than 20 though, per gender.

I meant twenty total, between genders. You have a few hours of practice a day (where the athletes mostly run) and only so much time for meetings with athletes. Every coach I know and haved worked with care about the well being of their athletes (they also care about winning). I honestly feel win at all cost coaches are the exception though, even at DI.

But in my personal experience anything past twenty athletes, between the two genders, and a coach will only have minimal amounts of time to work with lower level athletes. Some coaches can do a lot, but how well can you really get to know 30 to 40 athletes? You prioritize as a necessity.

That is why I tell HSrs to go somewhere where they connected with the coach in the recruiting process, and where they were offered a scholarship. I know of plenty of walk on success stories, but I have also seen alot of fairly talented athletes walk on to programs that I have a lot of respect for, only to be 15+ on the depth chart and frustrated.

Yep this is very sage advice. Especially with women's programs, watch out for massive rosters. The coaches can be wonderful people but if you have a huge roster you are not going to get the same attention and be able to develop the same kind of relationship with your athletes. I think 20ish is about right. Maybe a little more at the college level if you have a lot of free time during the day (not a technical events coach in track, for example). Being the back-of-the-pack walk-on usually sucks.

I also agree that many coaches are well-intentioned and the "burn 'em up to get the win" coaches are the exception. They're probably overrepresented at top programs, though, so they get more headlines.